Christianity becoming extinct in its birthplace, says Holland

Christianity becoming extinct in its birthplace, says Holland

20th September 2013

‘Medieval scale of horror . . . ’ Historian Tom Holland. Photos: Stephen SizerMIDDLE
EAST historian Tom Holland told a briefing in London last night that
the world is watching the effective extinction of Christianity from its
birthplace.
In an apocalyptic appraisal of the worsening political
situation in the region, a panel of experts provided a mass of evidence
and statistics for the end of the region’s nation states under the
onslaught of militant Islam.

‘In terms of the sheer scale of the
hatreds and sectarian rivalries, we are witnessing something on the
scale of horror of the European Thirty Years War,’ said Holland.
‘It
is the climax of a process grinding its way through the twentieth
century – the effective extinction of Christianity from its birthplace.’
The
event titled ‘Reporting the Middle East: Why the truth is getting lost’
at the National Liberal Club in Whitehall, sought answers to the
‘anaemic’ coverage of attacks on Egypt’s Christians on 14 August.‘Horrific levels of violence’: Nina Shea Pre-planned
destruction of scores of ancient churches, monasteries, schools,
orphanages and businesses had gone unreported for days across the West,
Nina Shea, Director of the Hudson Institute Religious Freedom Centre in Washington said.
After
the Islamists swept multiple elections during the first revolution in
2011, US newspapers asking how it would change Egypt suggested merely
that women would be prohibited from wearing skimpy clothes, and Sharm
el-Sheikh would close as a tourist destination.
This was ‘utterly
trivial’ she said. Persecution of Copts, who dated their church to
Gospel writer St Mark in Alexandria, was at its worst since the
fourteenth century, with ‘horrific levels of violence’.
‘It has been the worst persecution in 700 years against the oldest, largest remaining Christian minority in the Middle East.’
The
media had failed to ask the most basic questions, she said. ‘Why were
the Copts singled out, what was the significance and purpose of the
attacks?’
A fourth-century church dedicated to St Mary – whom
Muslims were supposed to revere – and that was a UNESCO World Heritage
site, had been destroyed and designated as a Muslim prayer space.
It was 200 years older than the Bamyan Statues in Afghanistan, yet the mainstream media had ignored its demise.
Yet
there was enough evidence to show that the violence was part of a plan
to ‘drive out the Copts, to terrorise them into leaving’, she added.
Lapido Chief Executive Dr Jenny Taylor who organized the event which was co-hosted with foreign policy think tank Henry Jackson Society, said the media’s job was impeded by ‘secular blinders’.
They
tended to report the Middle East’s religions as a ‘variant of a
Westminster debate’ with ‘left-wing underdogs versus right-wing overdogs
and the Christians getting lumped in with the overdogs if they get
mentioned at all.’
Holland said Egypt was not a developing nation,
which needed help to emerge as a Western democracy but had been the
world’s first state, with a civilization on a level with China and
Iran. In Roman times, it had been the world’s bread basket.
Now it was the single largest importer of wheat anywhere on the planet.From
right: Tom Holland, Nina Shea, Douglas Murray (Henry Jackson Society),
Betsy Hiel, His Grace Bishop Angaelos and Jenny Taylor
The
audience which packed the National Liberal Club’s David Lloyd George
Room in Whitehall, heard a litany of atrocities and devastation covered
by Arabic-speaking foreign correspondent Betsy Hiel of the Pittsburgh
Tribune, on the ground in Cairo throughout both revolutions.
The
Coptic Church in UK’s General Bishop Angaelos, former secretary to the
predecessor Pope Shenouda, spoke in detail of distortions in media
coverage that were mere presuppositions aggravating the situation on the
ground.
Some reports had even suggested Egypt was undergoing a
civil war - absurdly referring to a 'field hospital' in a mosque in the
'leafiest', most affluent part of Cairo.
'Egypt will never have a civil war. Its demographics just don't fit that scenario.'
Muslims
had often protected Christians. The church and civil society together
were against the extremists. Many Muslims had turned against the
Brotherhood when it became clear there was no economic plan.
In
answer to a question from the floor he agreed there had been what felt
like ‘silence’ from Western churches, governments and indeed Western
Muslims after the attacks, which belied Islamist propaganda that the
West colluded with Christians.
Shea also spoke about Syria.
Christians
in Syria were now ‘caught in the middle’, she said. There was a shadow
war against them by rebels, with jihadis and al-Qaeda factions
deliberately attacking Christians.
‘When they conquer a town they
set up sharia courts and mini sharia states. The Christians are
fleeing. Given the choice to be killed or to leave, they leave. If
they stay, the jizya tax is imposed, and then raised. If they cannot
pay they are killed.’
She said Christians dared not go to refugee camps run by rebels as they would be recruited to fight.
The
so-called Damascus Plan drafted by the Free Syrian Army for after the
war ends, included retribution killings against any who did not oppose
Assad.

3 comments:

Christians in Syria are now in the same invidious position they have found themselves in every other Muslim country in the Middle East where regime change has occurred. In Iraq (the second largest surviving Christian population in the ME) the Christians were deliberately targeted by al-Qa'ida linked extremists and Sunni nationalists. They were afforded little or no protection from the supposedly secular but Shia-led Maliki government who are involved in a virtual civil war with the Sunnis and have turned a blind eye to outrages against the Christian minority not the least because they consider the Christians linked to the old Saddam regime. From a population of about a million under Saddam, there are now less than 400,000 left and in the continuing violence since - this population is shrinking fast. Likewise in Egypt, the Copts were afforded some degree of protection by the Mubarak government, who had most of the worst perpetrators of anti-Christian violence locked up. Unfortunately when Mubarak was deposed, these Muslim extremists were among the first to be released from prison. Some were quickly re-arrested but they were soon set free again by Morsi. No surprise that the anti-Christian violence and oppression reached new heights before Morsi was deposed and the Muslim Brotherhood overthrown. The brief capture of the Syrian Christian town of Ma'alulah showed Christians what is in store for them there should the Islamist opposition win and overthrow the Assad regime. They have appealed to Assad to arm them and allow them to defend themselves. This of course is aligning them up with the hated Assad regime and Shia Alawite minority. The result is predictable - more Christians will be killed or driven out. The West led by Obama bears much responsibility for seeing this happen time and again and saying and doing nothing about it.

It's not really the West, it's the Left and their mad plans to destroy History and forge a New World Consciousness. In the West they've been doing this through the Hegelian Dialectic Principle with spectacular success. They've all been made mad and the world is being taken for a horrific ride with no way back and all bridges burnt.

'Extinct in its birthplace." Not so long as the Jewish state of Israel can manage - somehow - to survive. Because the thing that everybody is ignoring - and certainly the western press - is that, outside of Jihad Fortress Gaza (run by the Hamasniks, who were founded by the Ikhwan), and outside of Muslim-dominated and Muslim-occupied Judea and Samaria (from whence Christians are being steadily driven out by Muslim misrule and deliberate Muslim viciousness), Christians within eretz Israel are safer than they are anywhere else in the entire Middle East. Not so long ago, an Arabic-speaking Christian priest from Nazareth shucked off the dhimmitude that has had the traditional Christian population within Israel meekly carrying water for the Jihad against the Jews, and began preaching in support of Israel and urging young people from the Christian community to sign up for the IDF and prepare themselves to fight shoulder to shoulder with their Jewish brethren in defence of the relative peace and safety that is only guaranteed by that slender ring of IDF steel. One such young man who had heeded the call, was quoted as saying, "This [Israel] is the only country in the region [that is, in the Muslim-dominated Middle East] that is worth fighting for".